


the promised revolution does not come

by ticoyuu



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study - Freeform, M/M, a lil bit dds inspired but no voresonas yET, its only implied im sorry u_u
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 19:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17884088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ticoyuu/pseuds/ticoyuu
Summary: In which Kazuya becomes King of Bel, no calamitous pledge of intention happens, and their whole world shrinks to circumference of the Yamanote Loop.(Canon divergent AU. Atsuro-centric, kind of a character study, KazuAtsu if you squint.)





	the promised revolution does not come

**Author's Note:**

> hi yeah no long delirious ramble this time bc my brains already checked tf out uwu hope you enjoy. a lil dds inspired, hopefully someday ill make that voresonas au proper afsdhsjkl

The promised revolution doesn’t come; rather, there’s only a sudden boom of change, that gradually tapers into a new normality.

 

X X X X X X X

Beldr appears on the 28th of August, and Team Kazuya scrambles in a panic (mostly Yuzu and himself, Atsuro admits to no one in particular). The passing of hours as the sun slowly moves overhead is weighted, ominous even, and they finally end up somewhere after chasing a familiar-looking spectre to some cheap-looking bastard who spouts a whole lot of fantastical nonsense that honestly, Atsuro wouldn’t have given a second thought had life still been  _ normal _ . 

 

_ He’s invincible _ , the host says. He means the demon who Midori came close to getting all five of their asses obliterated by in her blind, stupid heroics. He means Beldr. Who is invincible, and supposedly about to conduct a massacre that includes them.

 

_ Invincible..Except for mistletoe _ , he continues. And he winks at Kazuya, and proceeds to unload some truly ludicrous stuff about an ancient transgression, a succession war pitting demons against demons, and to top it all off, a God-- big  _ G _ , to be specific-- who wants to see humanity humbled on their knees in his  _ oh so goodly graciousness _ , complete with some Shakespeare-grade theatrics.

 

The gigolo-- Atsuro almost snorts out loud when Kazuya calls him that straight to his face with a look blatantly telling he’s had about enough of this, and thanks him for the information. 

 

_ Thanks, Mr. Gigolo, we appreciate it, _ he drones, with that champion bored bitch face. Atsuro knows it pretty well. For the record, Yuzu’s bitch face is like her personality; it tends more towards energetically indignant. She wants to say something and she’s going to say it. All things considered, she’s kind of the hothead of their trio.

 

On the other hand, while his usual personality is anything but aloof, Kazuya’s bitching-you-out face is stone cold, sort of haughty with a tinge of boredom and makes a person feel like a mud worm. Maybe a smart, or handsome, or whatever mud worm still, but the uncomfy kind of worm-ness like this universally, unspokenly understood to be  _ royal _ figure is graciously humoring you with his time, because even if he has a lot of it there’s  _ always _ something better he could be occupying himself with.

 

Atsuro’s always withered before that look. In fact, he’s pretty sure the only people who aren’t affected are Naoya Minegishi-- Kazuya’s formerly cohabitating cousin and Atsuro’s programming teacher, who probably wouldn’t be rattled even if the apocalypse was literally happening on the 17th floor when he lives on the 18th--, the bartender Gin, who probably sees a lot of bitching in the course of work, and the Shomonkai’s Maiden. Who fights literal demons as her day job, apparently.

 

This mysterious, brazen weirdo seems to know a lot and Atsuro would personally prefer not to piss him off at this stage (if ever), but the man only chortles as if greatly amused when Kazuya informs him exactly where he can stick his ugly dick advertising and flips him off. The gigolo leaves in a fit of giggles.

 

“Aha.., he’s giggling, what a giggle.. lo..,” Atsuro comments weakly as Kazuya stares after the man’s retreating figure looking like he can’t decide if he wants to stab the infuriating, mysterious, condescending jerk in the dick or the face. Atsuro isn’t sure if he’s trying to break the tension for his own sake or Kazuya’s, because he’s really not into this cold sweat feeling but they also need to get a move on and find some mistletoe. Kazuya turns to him and practically hisses, “BOOOO, get out,” but the trio leaves the area, bickering amicably.

 

Fishy or not, it’s the only lead they have to try and overturn fate.

 

X X X X X

Fate is overturned that night at 18:17.

 

Kazuya boldly opens the fight by clocking Beldr a good one with the fake mistletoe strap wound tightly around his fist, the spiky plastic leaves facing outward like a knuckleduster. Thankfully it does appear to be magically effective, as Beldr rather than the cheap plastic phone strap staggers under the shock of that first hit.

 

Atsuro had taken a deep breath left them to it, tackling his mission of keeping the hordes and hordes of stony lizards and deceptively pretty birds away from Kazuya. The cheap bastard would summon new ones every now and then, dragging it on and on, and...

 

...On and on and on until he’d actually started to find a more steady, less heart-pounding rhythm. Or something. At least he wasn’t instinctively screwing his eyes shut with every Zio he cast at this point.

 

Fried chicken had started to sound pretty good, too. Mmm, Christmas KFC. No, that’s a Vidofnir, it absorbs elec, can’t be fried, gotta just beat it; Anger Hit works if it’s already staggering. Snipe it if it flies up.

 

Just beat it, beat it, beat it--

 

Across the graveyard by the biggest monument, Kazuya opens his fist and the charm drops, his foot coming up in the same split-second motion to knock it midair into the huge target of Beldr’s solar plexus region as if punting a football, and the weight of his entire body plus Zan-boosted momentum comes crashing down in tandem.

 

_ Ouch _ , Atsuro thinks. A crit. Maybe extreme arcade dancing games  _ are _ actually good agility training, even if the demon app still still rates Kazuya’s physical strength even lower than his own. Atsuro’s mind starts wandering just a bit. He’s a computer guy, a nerd type, isn’t that kind of sad? Yuzu even calls him Otakuro, but  _ man, _ unlike himself, Kazuya knows no fear and has some incredible combat instinct. Well, he supposes, it’s fair given all the skirmishes they’ve learned to not die in after Kazuya was nearly murdered right off the bat, classic horror jumpscare-style, when they booted up those COMPS.

 

They’d almost died then, and then  _ again _ they’d narrowly avoided becoming frozen Target-grade toast thanks to Amane, and then they’d huddled in that damp graveyard trying desperately to will their bodies to rest for the coming day. 

 

But that was then and this is now, and  _ this _ Kazuya’s got a big smile on his face like it’s a huge arcade thrill and not a fight for their lives, mouth open showing teeth and the reds inside, and the chaos of the battlefield goes idyllic and  _ still _ for moment as all the demons along with Atsuro and Yuzu turn as one, slowly as if spellbound. 

 

Atsuro’s best friend looks ferocious and burning with life and everything shrinks back a step in recognition-- instinctual respect, maybe-- of Kazuya’s ascent, marking himself true Lord over this one pocket of calamity.

 

Then the moment is over and Beldr buckles to his knees and splinters into bits and bytes, going black-and-yellow supernova with a howl that sounds suspiciously like ‘ _ LOKI, YOU BASTARD’, _ and honestly, assuming the host who’d fed them info was Loki, Atsuro can kind of relate as entropy explodes back to life around them.

 

The remaining demons lose their coordination, not that they’d really had much before (a good thing, Atsuro breathes in relief), and Yuzu sprints over to him and throwing Agi and Bufu casts left and right, that sassy Pixie of hers popping a couple Dias and snark as needed, and within the next five minutes every remaining hostile has been neutralized or fled.

 

Atsuro would like to chase them, if he had the energy, and one look at Kazuya tells him his best friend would be absolutely for the idea as well. Victory is an addictive strain of paralegal drug, and one that can be just as deadly. It takes one glance over at Yuzu and then the desecrated graveyard for the thrill to go cold.

 

Atsuro assesses the situation. Kazuya’s dripping in sweat and his hair and clothes look damp and some of grime looks too dark to be just sweat and dirt, and the tang of iron hangs sharp in the air. For the one who took on the toughest foe, he seems the least affected of the three of them, which should seem terribly unfair but it’s Kazuya and he’s always seemed a little more or a little less than human.

 

On the other hand, Yuzu looks like the thrum of battle had been the only thing keeping her on her feet and with it fading, she sags dramatically against Pixie. It seems less exaggerated comic relief as it is legitimate exhaustion. For the record, the tiny demon does her level best for being approximately the size of a particularly unimpressive pigeon, but Yuzu drops to the grass with a puff and is out like a light, battlefield grime and all, within seconds.

 

Atsuro makes a note of that. It makes sense and also confirms his theory that the HP gauge on the app relates to physical condition and the MP gauge shows mental.. spiritual..  _ some _ kind of energy that seems to drain in relation to spell usage. Yuzu’d had the bulk of their spells for this fight.

 

While Atsuro quickly goes over the day’s events in his mind, Kazuya sits down beside Yuzu and flips open his COMP, clicking his tongue at the low battery indicator. The battery among others on these things held up  _ really _ well for what they did; Atsuro was pretty damn sure Naoya had extensively tampered with the hardware too.

 

At that Atsuro frowns and flips his open to check, too. As expected, they’d need to spend some time manually juicing the COMPs. He’s a little mad at Naoya for not including some miraculous self-recharge function, but that’s  _ too _ impossible, he supposes. Not like, writing entire programs that summon  _ actual demons _ and are even optimized for for considerably weak handheld game systems, no, nothing like that shit which is  _ totally _ wired in reality.

 

When he looks up he finds Kazuya peering at him from under his bangs, stretched out on the grass all loose and boneless, like a self-satisfied feline after a hunt. He’s propped up Yuzu, who is still out like a light ( _ or a dead battery _ , an annoying voice in his mind quips) into a more comfortable position.

 

“He designed it like a video game,” Atsuro comments. Personally he doesn’t know how to feel about that other than it would probably piss him off to focus on too much. Is Naoya...?

 

Kazuya props his chin up on his palm and huffs, the exhale is harsh. “Bastard sure seems to be treating this like a game,” he comments, voice measuredly blank, and Atsuro remembers Yuzu’s complicated but worried expression as she glanced at Kazuya, saying they’d met Naoya near the apartments near the start.

 

Atsuro glances off to the side instead. They both want to trust Naoya, but.. 

 

They end up passing a couple hours in silence, trying to rest and parse the day’s happenings. The sun has set when a  _ ping  _ from Kazuya’s COMP lets them know he’s received an email, and given the time of day and the fact it was only sent to him, it has to be from Naoya.

 

Atsuro waits anxiously for a couple seconds, glances at Yuzu-- still sleeping-- and peers over Kazuya’s shoulder to read, but Kazuya clicks __ his tongue and suddenly flings the COMP none too gently to the grass next to him. Atsuro panics briefly and Kazuya glances amusedly at him. 

 

“Naoya remodeled them, it won’t break that easily.”

 

...Well, trustworthiness issues aside, Naoya sure does seem to be getting a kick out of monitoring them. 

 

_ Bastard _ , Atsuro thinks as he lies down next to Kazuya and Yuzu. Huddling like penguins against the damp nighttime chill, the two of them finally join Yuzu in deep sleep.

 

X X X X

Morning comes-

 

Another morning comes-

 

Many, many mornings come and go and a rhythm, a guiding beat, a pulse, seems to pull them along like rapids with Kazuya trying his damndest with the wheel.

 

And then Atsuro finds himself suddenly in a thoughtful mood one day as dawn breaks cold and sunny in mid-February; he stands up to break from his data-monitoring duties and it hits him: this is the new norm. 

 

Six months post-sealing, it’s still got that post-apocalyptic feel but it’s weird, juxtaposed with functional convenience stores and fast food and the fact that running water and electricity and internet (a limited, Tokyo-only version though), even, have started to come back as systems and infrastructure are restarted and demon power manhandles the rest into place. Even with the craziness of every day being potentially life or death, it feels like the status quo’s returned now, even if those conbinis are patrolled like yakuza fronts and most of those burgers are sustainably wild-caught Nue meat, grilled Agi-style with a side of tonkotsu.

 

_ This is what they are now _ , he supposes, then amends it to  _ We. _

 

_ Turf wars. Gangs _ .  _ Factions. _ It is what it is; it’s like establishing order in a newly knitted society and change is never peaceful even when it’s not a revolution, but there’s a certain freeness he feels-- and can’t deny,  _ enjoys _ , at least a little-- that chaos brings with it.

 

Atsuro loads the data as an attachment and texts it to Kazuya.

 

AT-LOW: at the metro, 13:00

Kazuya: seriously? do they have nothing better to do right after lunch?? because i fucking do

 

Kazuya’s reply is typically dramatic and near instantaneous. Throughout the ordeal and the early days of Tokyo being permanently sealed off from the outside world, Atsuro felt like he’d watched his best friend progressively lose the last couple fucks he’d had to give about societal propriety and at this stage, in Kazuya’s own words, there were ‘definitely better things for him to spend his fucks on’. (On a meta level Atsuro is curious how much of that change is simply from sheer, chaotic freedom, or if Kazuya’s new Bel nature has changed him somehow.)

 

And then after saying that, he’d cocked his head at Atsuro and quirked one corner of his mouth up cheekily, that  _ jerk _ .

 

Atsuro shakes his head and decides to focus on the task at hand.

 

\---

AT-LOW: no rest for the wicked

Kazuya: a tragedy, really

Kazuya: well be there or be square then

Kazuya: nobody likes a square

Kazuya: triangles and diamonds are nice shapes though

AT-LOW: yeah okay boss i’m on it

Kazuya: nice i could get used to this

AT-LOW: also diamonds are just sideways squares???

\---

 

...Kazuya doesn't respond to that one and Atsuro flips his phone shut with a laugh.

Very little has changed about Kazuya even though he now heads a small faction on situated on a fat wedge of territory, its back to the northern barrier and the Shibuya Daemons holding east. Ironically, they’re no longer based in Shibuya and Kazuya had laughed his ass off when Kaido grumped that they’d lost the Shibuya region.

 

To the south, Gin’s bar and the surrounding block is a mutually agreed no man’s land. It’s a safe zone, unless you pick a fight in there, in which case Gin has no problem escorting you out.

 

(“Man, he’s  _ so _ cool,” Yuzu says dreamily, to which Kazuya dryly comments, “Don’t fuck with bartenders. Duly noted.”) 

 

She’s still celebrity crushing on both Gin and Haru months after meeting the pair. It’s cute, they agree, but mostly Kazuya and Atsuro are just glad their friend’s spirits are back up after a seriously rocky time. She’s surprisingly resilient.

 

For the most part, Kazuya’s territory is secure given their alliance with Kaido and friendship with Gin and Haru, and they’re not an aggressive faction so they’re mostly left alone. Still, things happen and there has to be a goal or you stagnate, according to Yuzu, and Kazuya right then and there straight up, immediately declares they should try and take over the entire city. 

 

..No, actually, that was incorrect. “There is no  _ try _ ,” he sniffs in response to Yuzu’s disbelieving "you're gonna try to _what now?"_   Her mouth is actually hanging open and her face says everything they need to know about what she thinks of Kazuya’s declaration. Atsuro pretends his amused snort is a cough and hides it behind his sleeve.

 

“-only  _ do _ ,” Kazuya continues. “Or something like that, anyway.”

 

Atsuro almost rolls his eyes. As King of Bel, Kazuya  _ alone  _ could wipe out the entirety of Tokyo without breaking a sweat. In fact, that enormous power was the reason the entire ordeal had happened in the first place. But he puts it out of mind and doesn’t spare it a second thought, because Kazuya has proven time and time again that  _ he _ controls Bel, not the other way around.

 

“So! Are you in?” Kazuya’s staring at the two of them with a slight grin, eyebrows quirked inward and if he had a tail, Atsuro is sure it’d be flicking excitedly.

 

Yuzu makes a complicated face that Atsuro can best describe as ‘disappointed, but not surprised’. “So you’re.. inviting us to join your plan to create total anarchy in pursuit of world domination, ignoring the fact we’re  _ already _ crawling with demons and faction wars-”

 

“Not  _ world _ domination, just the factions in Tokyo!”

 

Yuzu’s face complicates further, before straightening out blandly. Her voice is tinkling with laughter when she speaks, though. She’s definitely gotten stronger, Atsuro thinks offhandedly.

 

“Yeah, that’s very like you.”

 

“Yep, and I couldn’t do it without you guys.” 

 

He’s beaming like a pillar of light as he says it and this time Atsuro actually does roll his eyes. “Uh-huh, Mr. King of Bel, thanks for saving us a seat on your party bus-”

 

“I fuckin wish?” He snorts. “I had a bus? Or like… a car, or something? You’d think the apocalypse would have a lot more abandoned cars to hijack, but nooo.”

 

They’re interrupted from their playful bickering by Yuzu bursting out in full on laughter. Kazuya and Atsuro turn towards her at the same time, and Kazuya is smiling with his cat-eyed squint; Atsuro is laughing and has his arm slung over Kazuya’s shoulder, and Yuzu grins brightly.

 

She flips open her phone (Naoya’d upgraded them to phone apps after being instrumental to the infrastructure restoration, before fucking off to god-knows-where but presumably inside the lockdown) and casually hits a couple buttons with her thumb. A little sphere of magnetite pops into being next to her and she turns, addressing the saintly, old-timey oriental goddess that appears when the magnetite coalesces,

 

“Right then,” she says brightly, “Lemme know when you get your butts kicked out there and Ama’n me’ll stitch you up.”

 

Kazuya slaps him on the shoulder and laughs just as blindingly. He claps his hands together in front of him once, and suddenly they’re in motion and Atsuro stumbles and yelps, “Right now!?” because Kazuya has already picked a random direction and marched off, tugging Atsuro along by the strap of his bag.

 

X X X

He’s grinning brightly as they threaten bodily harm to several large, angry men in weird tourist fashion--  _ wow, have you guys changed your clothes once since the ordeal?  _ Kazuya quips-- and Atsuro resists the urge to groan and slap his forehead, instead settling on an apologetic grimace.

 

Several more words are exchanged and the open street suddenly erupts into chaos, and before he processes it rationally Atsuro finds himself instinctively throwing himself full-bodied into Kazuya’s fight.

 

X X

Kazuya roars, amplified by magic and his presence is  _ primal _ when he fights nowadays, and Atsuro even bares his teeth in response to threats.

 

X

 _There was no promised revolution_ , Atsuro ponders, _only the unstoppable tidal wave called Kazuya Minegishi, King of Bel and Lord of Lords._ And he’s not even surprised at this point when he thinks about it and realizes he doesn’t mind it; doesn’t mind this at all.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free t talk tme in comments, discord, whatever
> 
> twitter: geckcellent  
> discord: sir geckcellent#0551
> 
> we got a nice megaten server goin with stimulating discussions like todays uhhh  
> MimaToday at 3:01 AM  
> truly heavy discussion: eggs in her puss, eggs in her puss, kanye mima likes eggs in her puss-  
> ShijimaToday at 3:02 AM  
> GOD!!!!  
> ShijimaToday at 3:02 AM  
> no it has to be eggs in her pussy with the rhythm slightly altered  
> finGERS IN his ass, eggs in HER puss-y
> 
> ..yeah aNYWAY , ty fOR READING /wince


End file.
